Get off the bleeding computer, will ya?

This is how your computer room should look during this festive season. Don't ya have a telly to watch, a turkey to butcher, stuffing to put up its arse, dumplings to stuff with mushrooms and cabbage (if you are Polish), old friends to meet, old flames to avoid, sweets to finish off your burnt out fillings, crappy Christmas crackers to pull, shopping to do (unfortunately)?

Go get your arse off the chair and away from the screen - do something useful for a change. Like me - writing this blog!!!!!!

Will Poland withdraw from Iraq in October 2008? and then Afghanistan?

Prime Minister Tusk is squaring up for a 'celebrity death match' with his nemesis, the one and only (oh no wait, he's got a doppelganger) President Kaczynski. Yesterday in the Sejm (parliament) his cabinet officially requested an extension to the Polish mission in Iraq, until the end of October 2008. Wait a minute, haven't we heard all this shit before?

You may be forgiven for thinking so. According to Polskie Radio "the motion reads that Polish troops and the remaining personnel will perform tasks connected with the termination of the mission as part of the International Stabilization Forces in Iraq. The Polish contingent will number 900 soldiers plus 300 people kept in reserve on Poland’s territory."

So it's the British style of withdrawal, rather than the Spanish type. SLD promised a withdrawal in 2005. PiS then extended it to the end of 2006 and one of PO's election promises was to have a phased withdrawal in 2008. Time will tell whether they hold to this promise - afterall, we can;t just believe them now, can we!

I suspect Polish arms and oil dealers are this morning having a fit, trying to work out how they can maintain pressure on gvt. agents to keep every opportunity open so they can exploit the Iraqi disaster zone. All in all, they certainly didn't do as well as they would have hoped, U.S. firms winning all the lucrative contracts (Halliburton, Bechtel and other monsters).

Well, not to worry - I'm sure they filthy, greedy assholes who trade in arms and oil are licking their lips at the prospect of an increased Polish contingent in Afghanistan under the unwinnable NATO ISAF forces that increasingly fuck up that country.

Poland would do well to remember that this is Britain's 4th time in Afghanistan - they lost the 3 previous times, and their main general some months ago reported to the Guardian that they were likely to lose the current battle also.

As for my last comments to the Polish state and their army - lie in a bed of fleas and you are sure to be bitten!

As for the public, well, there is a growing disapproval of the Polish presence in Afghanistan. A recent CBOS poll found that 83% of the respondents do not endorse the Polish military presence. This an increase by 6% rise from the last poll conducted just 2 months ago. Supporters for the mission amount to a mere 14%, a reduction of 5 points in the dame period.

Of course, it doesn't take a genius to understand why Polish society are concerned about what the hell fellow Poles are doing out there in the wilderness of a country their former enemy, the USSR, had occupied and committed countless atrocities in over 2 decades ago.

Reports transpired recently that Polish troops had killed 6 Afghan civilians in cold blood last August has obviously impacted the perspective of the public about the purposelessness and immorality of their participation.

60% of those questioned in the poll believes there should be a complete withdrawal of Polish troops in Afghanistan.

Gays under increasing attack in Iraq

March 20th, 2007 was the 4th anniversary of the U.S./Coalition forces invasion of Iraq. For the three gay men photographed above by Bilal Hussein of Associated Press it was to be their final day on earth, gunned down in the city of Ramadi by anti-homosexual death squads.

One can hazard a guess at how fucked up Iraq is at the moment when you have the Bush Administration calling the significant Shiite religious leader, the Grand Ayatollah Al-Sistani, a moderate voice in Iraqi political affairs. This is the same man who issued a fatwa last October calling for the killing of gays in Iraq.

This Iraqi blog reports that "Ali Hili, founder and spokesperson for the exile group LGBT Iraqis U.K., said Islamic death squads came to life in response to Sistani's fatwa and brought about an atmosphere of terror among gays." Furthermore he claims that "some death squad members arranged meetings with gays through chat rooms by posing as gays themselves, then captured and sometimes assaulted or killed their targeted victims."

The U.S.-based International Gay & Lesbian Human Rights Commission was amongst human rights groups who complained that the U.S./Coalition occupation forces aren't doing anything to put pressure on their Iraqi partners to stop the gay-hunt.

Regarding the estimated 400 innocent gay people murdered since the invasion in March 2003 merely as a result of their sexual preference, Ali Hili comments, “We thought that with the presence of Americans, life would become paradise, that Iraq would be Westernized, but unfortunately the way things were before was so much better than where we are now.”

Well, in all fairness, why the fuck would you be relying on an army whose actions have led to the deaths of up to a million Iraqis (According to the U.S. John Hopkins Institute and the British 'Lancet' medical journal) since the illegal invasion of 2003?

To learn more about the situation of sexual minorities in Iraq please refer to the blog linked to above.

Oil slick in Poland raises environmentalist concerns

United Press International reported today that a 30 kilometre-long oil slick continued to flow down the Vistula River towards the Baltic Sea.

Polish Radio reported that environmentalists are increasingly concerned as this is the second time in just a week when oil has leaked from a crude oil pipeline into the main Polish river that connects the cities of Krakow, Warsaw and the tri-city region of Gdansk, Gdynia and Sopot. They are expecially concerned about the effects on birds that gather around the river during the current cold period.

Firefighters were engaged in emergency work to gather huge amounts of crude oil that spilled in the Vistula Sunday near Plock.

A Russian watchdog group has said an ecological disaster is pending if the oil reaches the Baltic Sea.

Killer Coke's Santa Claus reveals he is a 'closet right-wing paramilitary'

"Ho, ho, ho - have some bloody Coke"


Murder, torture, kidnapping and illegal detention by violent paramilitaries, frequently aided by bottling plant management, has been the tragic reality for Coca-Cola's Colombian employees for 2 decades now. Members of the SINALTRAINAL trade union ordinary employees carry a death sentence around their necks. Yet an appeal from Javier Correra, president of their union - “We want justice. We want people to know the truth about what is going on in Colombia against Coke workers. Now that you know, will you please help us?” - has not fallen on deaf ears.

Killer Coke Action Ingredients
Responding to this call on Saturday afternoon, activists in Warsaw decided to bring together the key ingredients of a well-known recipe, long-proven to scare the underpants off Coca-Cola's corpocrats:

*Posters
*Flyers
*Appeal letter
*Placards
*Table
*Stand
*Megaphone
*Santa suits
*Paramilitary uniform
*Guns (plastic)
*Trade union worker suits
*Watered down red paint
*Old Coca Cola bottles
*Digital camera
*Video camera
*Activists who know a lot more about Coke's dark history of human rights abuses than Coca-Cola's public relations department

Prologue:
Soon after we gathered and were starting to get dressed for our roles, we learned from H&M's bored and agitated security guard that the 'light gray' pavement stones we were standing on are “property of the Galeria Centrum shopping area”, and therefore we could only stage our street theatre action in the 'dark grey' pavement zone some inches away.

Even the brightest bureaucrat or police officer would have a hard time making this shit up. After we ignored a few more threats from the security guard, “I'll call the police if you don't move,” we got back into focus to perform our action and engage the public about Killer Coke.

Act 1, 'Killer Santa Claus'
The half-paramilitary/half-Santa Claus actor loaded his weapons when he saw Coca-Cola's trade unionists giving out information about Coke's crimes. One by one he assassinated the workers, with impunity. 3 activists staged a die-in while playing the roles of the slain Coca-Cola employees and former SINALTRAINAL trade union leaders:


Luis Enrique Giraldo Arango, murdered on the 20th of April by paramilitaries – he was employed at Carepa bottling plant


Isidro Segundo Gil, was murdered on the 5th of December 1996 by paramilitaries while he was on duty at Carepa bottling plant


Adolfo de Jesus Munera Lopez, murdered on the 31st of August 2002 at Baranquilla bottling plant.

The narrator explained the desperate circumstances for Coca-Cola's trade unionist employees in Colombia and appealed to the public to show solidarity with the families of the deceased and other workers by demanding Coca-Cola use their influence and profits to safeguard their employees security.

Act 2, 'The real taste of Coca-Cola'
Santa Claus then proceeded to fill out cups of symbolic blood (red paint) and passers-by were invited by our narrator to enjoy the bloody taste of Coke. Thankfully, everybody boycotted the Coke offered once they had become aware of the wide-ranging allegations and mounting evidence that the Coca-Cola corporation is ethically out of order.


Santa's elves gave out flyers and entered discussions with members of the public, explaining the reason behind the Killer Coke campaign and appealing to them to join the boycott. Furthermore, people were requested to write emails to the major Polish NGO, Polish Humanitarian Organisation, to demand it end it's Christmas campaign with Coca-Cola. Lots of interest was shown and feedback was very positive.


Come on, one drop of Killer Coke won't kill ya!!!


Act 3, 'Face to Face with Poland's Coca-Cola PR Chief'
Meanwhile, on the outskirts of the main events, a second Santa engaged in a heated discussion with the head of Coca-Cola's Public Relations Department. Initially we thought she was going to join in on our action, but as it turned out she had decided to give up a weekend away with her family so as to monitor our activities.

Despite the fact that she asserted she would not work with Coca-Cola if she believed they were not a force for good in society, she had no rebuttals for the list of Coke's crimes put to her, some of which are listed here:

*Advertisements in Hitler Youth booklets in the 1930's

*Calls from Martin Luther King for a wide-scale boycott of Coke due to discrimination of coloured workers

*The poisoning and depletion of water supplies in India (especially in Kerala state)

*Repression and murder of trade unionists in Guatemala in the 1970s and the resulting success of an international boycott campaign

*Payment of $190 million in compensation for 2,000 black workers in the year 2000

*Human Rights Watch reports on the use of child labour in El Salvador and Amnesty Internationals appeals to Coke for better enforcement of International labour and human rights standards

Informing her about the list of Coke's crimes since the 1930's, very few of which she was aware, put her in a position whereby she dismissed proven human rights breaches by Coca-Cola, without having any arguments to the contrary. She claimed that our information leaflets 'personally' attacked her, though in the article she referred to it only stated 'the Coca Cola Public Relations Department.' The fusion of the human person with the corporate product is one of the most tragic consequences of corporate loyalty.


Coca-Cola's PR chief keeps an eye on Santa

Attempts of emotional attachment, crying wolf, is the usual tactic of the corporate PR spokesperson. However, when we established that she was actually being paid for 'attending' our event as Coke's 'representative' (in other words, damage control person), the second Santa proposed that her time would be more valuably spent with family, rather than defending the indefensible.

She even admitted that she would not be getting paid overtime, so we pointed out to her that she was entitled to it for unsocial working hours under Poland's labour laws. Additionally, we stressed that we would support any strike action her and other Coke workers decided to take on this or other worker rights issues.

Of course, we also invited her to inform her colleagues that the best way to show solidarity with workers in Colombia and elsewhere would be to boycott Coke and call for a general strike. Given Coca-Cola Enterprises adopted a cost-cutting restructuring plan in 2007 that included axing 3,500 jobs, so a possibility is not far-fetched.

We eagerly await a revolution amongst Coca-Cola's rank and file in Poland.

The Polish Killer Cola Campaign

Action organised by the Polish Syndicalist Union (Związek Syndykalistów Polski)

Other groups participating in the campaign:

Red Collective-Left Alternative (Czerwony Kolektyw - Lewicowa Alternatywa)


Better World Association (Stowarzyszenie "Lepszy Swiat")


National Worker's Initiative Trade Union (Ogolnopolski Zwiazek Zawodowy 'Inicjatywa Pracownicza')


Take Action Now - Please send the following appeal letter to Polish Humanitarian Action asking they end their collaboration with Coca Cola:

Appeal Letter to Polska Akcja Humanitarna


International Killer Coke Campaign


Other Coca-Cola employees from Colombia who have paid with their lives for their trade union activities are:


Avelino Chicanoy - Pasto bottling plant - murdered by paramilitaries in 1989


Jode Eleasar Manco David – Carepa, murdered by paramilitaries on the 8th of April, 1994


Luis Enrique Gomez Granado – Carepa, murdered by paramilitaries on the 23rd of April 1995


Jose Librado Herrerra Osorio – Carepa, murdered by paramilitaries on the 26th of December 1996


Oscar Dario Soto Polo – Monteria, murdered by paramilitaries on the 21st of June 2001

Amnesty Poland send 40,010 letters in 24-hour marathon

Murdered Russian journalist and human rights defender Anna Politkowska

I'm glad that the letters I managed to compose this morning helped Amnesty Poland's efforts in surpassing the 40,000 letters mark. This is the 8th year the event has been stage in Poland and occurs around the commemoration of International Human Rights Day (December 10th).

I arrived to the cafe turned Amnesty office at Chlodna 25 later than I had hoped, about 10.30am. There were a lot of tired heads in the gaffe, but ink was still being put to good use and the full envelopes were piling up.

Amnesty Poland punch far greater than their weight when it comes to this particular worldwide campaign day. They come in at 2nd place out of 40 participating countries who stand up for prisoners of conscience by writing letters to State authorities demanding their release/fair retrial/death sentence commution.

The international human rights group managed to involve 70 cities throughout Poland this year, an annual event around the December 10th International Human Rights Day, which commemorates the 1948 U.N. Declaration of Human Rights.

Amnesty Letter-writing marathon - On your marks, get set, GO!

Shi Tao - Amnesty Prisoner of Conscience

The Amnesty International Letter writing marathon kick-started in Poland today at 12 noon and will finish up at the same time tomorrow. I participated in last year's event here in Warsaw and despite the shitty venue, a yuppie-cafe with super expensive chocolate muffins and not a fair trade product in sight, it was a fun-loving and educational affair for all involved. Amnesty Poland claimed that during last years event over thousands of letters to prisoners of conscience were written worldwide last year to human rights defenders.

As someone who spent a little time in jail (just 6 weeks) I can't emphasise enough how valuable it is to receive a letter from a friend or stranger when your locked down for over 3/4's of the day in a 4m*4m cell. It keeps the guards fearful that if they give you hassle then someone will be knocking hard on the prison gate. It also helps win the admiration of fellow prisoners who can very often identify with the anti-war, anti-imperialist, environmentalist issues that activists often do jail time for.

So get off the computer and write with your hand for a change. A list of Amnesty's-supported prisoners can be found here.
Or if you are lazy and don't like links then please keep reading:

According to Amnesty International a "prisoner of conscience" is someone imprisoned solely for the peaceful expression of their beliefs. The term was coined by Amnesty International's founder, civil rights lawyer Peter Benenson, who launched Amnesty International with an appeal on behalf of six prisoners of conscience.

Chinese journalist Shi Tao is a current prisoner of conscience. He used his Yahoo! email account to send a message to a U.S.-based pro-democracy website and as a result authorities used his email account holder information (supplied by Yahoo) to sentence him to 10 years in prison.
Send a message to the Chinese gvt.

Open Letter to Polska Akcja Humanitarna (PAH) to end their Christmas campaign with Coca-Cola

Join Santa in boycotting Coca-Cola, his former employer, this Christmas!

PLEASE SPREAD WIDELY AMONGST YOUR NETWORKS

Appeal for Polish Humanitarian Action to cease their collaboration with Coca-Cola this Christmas

For decades the Coca-Cola company has been embroiled in controversy for breaching the basic human rights of its workers and harming the environments in which it operates.

For instance, they have paid out hundreds of millions of dollars in lawsuits to settle claims of race discrimination. Disturbing allegations and growing evidence has transpired that it has actively colluded in or just turned a blind eye towards the violent repression of its unionized members in Colombia(1). Communities and NGO's in India have accused the multi-national giant of water depletion and pollution(2).

As a result of these abuses, many human rights organisations and delegations - including Amnesty International(3) , Human Rights Watch(4) and a fact-finding mission led by a New York City Council member (5) - have appealed to Coca-Cola to better defend their workers 'rights and to radically reduce the damaging environmental fall-out of its factories.

Therefore, it is with great concern that we have learned of the well-respected Polish non-governmental organisation, Polska Akcja Humanitarna’s (PAH)(6) current Christmas campaign with Coca-Cola. While the beverages giant appeals to its drinkers this Christmas to help feed hungry Polish children through PAH’s ‘Wooden Puppet’ programme, the brutal irony exists that children as young as 8 years old work for Coca-Cola’s suppliers in the sugar cane fields of El Salvador(7). Is not their hunger for the universal right to education, and freedom from bonded labour, as equally important to the rights of Polish children?

To promote Coca-Cola as a corporately socially responsible multi-national jeopardizes the lives of workers in and neighbours of Coca-Cola's bottling companies, many of whom are struggling to lead decent lives. We agree with and strive to achieve similar principles to PAH's mission statement, to 'make the world a better place through the alleviation of human suffering and the promotion of humanitarian values.'

Furthermore, we are aware that PAH’s primary mission aspires to “shape humanitarian attitudes among the public and creates a modern culture of mutual help.” However, by associating its humanitarian actions with Coca-Cola, we believe that it compromises the struggles of the thousands who have suffered due to Coke’s malpractices.

Taking all this into consideration, and the ongoing failure of Coca-Cola to take responsibility for grave human rights' transgressions in its bottling plants, we hereby appeal for the Polish Humanitarian Action to immediately end its collaboration with Coca-Cola on the ‘Wooden Puppet’ and any humanitarian campaign.

We further demand that Coca Cola, who spent $2.6 billion dollars on advertising in 2006(8), invest its enormous resources in defending the basic human rights of its workers. The many communities adversely affected by its relentless and destructive drive for profit deserve their voices to be heard and their dignity to be upheld.

We appreciate the fact that PAH’s ‘Wooden Puppet’ campaign requires money to be effective, yet we implore them to seek alternative sources of funding so as not to compromise its humanitarian values. We are confident that the children who benefit from this food sustenance programme would be shocked if informed about the wide variety of allegations and evidence exposing Coca-Cola’s relationship to human rights’ breaches.

Finally, we invite all members of civil society in Poland, especially the humanitarian workers in Polish Humanitarian Action, to join us in boycotting the hundreds of Coca-Cola products. Our common demands, for Coca-Cola to uphold international labour and human rights’ standards, would be invaluable contributions in aiding the promotion of humanitarian values, as far afield as Colombia and India.

1. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinaltrainal_v._Coca-Cola
2. http://www.indiaresource.org/campaigns/coke/index.html
3. http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/ENGAMR230162007
4. http://hrw.org/english/docs/2004/06/10/elsalv8772.htm
5. http://www.killercoke.org/report.htm
6. http://www.pah.org.pl/7184.html
7. http://www.hrw.org/children/labor/elsalvador/
8. http://www.thecoca-colacompany.com/contactus/faq/advert....html

Individuals, groups, societies, collectives are invited to join our appeal for Poland's biggest humanitarian organisation to end their association with Coca-Cola. Please put your signature below or email me at dbamoran@yahoo.com

PLEASE SPREAD WIDELY AMONGST YOUR NETWORKS
Related Link: http://cia.bzzz.net/comment/reply/9215

40,000 Guinness pints robbed from St. James's Gate brewery

One of the chief suspects in the Guinness theft

What would you do with 450 kegs of guinness if an opportunity arose for you to rob them?

RTE reported recently that a man entered Guinness's Dublin plant at St. James Brewery and attached a trailer with the equivalent of 40,000 pints to his lorry.

The empty lorry was found in Co. Meath by the cops soon after staff at the brewery realised they were one lorry short of a battalion.

The contents of the kegs are estimated to cost about €64,000.

Hic!